Just want to apologize now for the length. This definitely wasn't intended to be Mitch/Doug long
Levi play is the culmination of 4 factors IMO. First, he's essentially playing out of position. Secondly, Russ Grimm is overrated to begin with and coaching a scheme that isn't his IMO and doesn't require a lineman to do what he drafted Levi to do. Third, when Whiz took over the team he surely must have thought we were going to run a whole lot more. Finally, Levi was a reach because the team had painted itself into a corner.
Calvin Pace was a prototypical 3-4 OLB who was reached for AND drafted out of position. I dont know anyone who watched Wake Forest football and thought he was a first round prospect. When he didn't perform until we switched to the 3-4 he was labeled a bust. He has since proven that label to be incorrect.
Antrel Rolle fits in the same category. He came from a college program that had a very strong pass rush and called for their DBs to be very physical both at the line and in run support. His ability to press at the line and disrupt routes was fantastic. Courtesy of his strength at the LOS and the team's pass rush, he rarely had to cover his man longer than 2-3 seconds. For reasons unclear to me, he was drafted by a Cardinal team who wanted him to play 7 yards off the LOS and stick with a receiver for 5-7 seconds while the QB took his time through his progressions because there was no need to hurry against our porous pass rush. I think he is much better safety than most seem to give him credit for, but again, his skills portray him as more of a SS than a FS. Had he been drafted into a system that embraced his talents he would still be a CB (and a very good one IMO) and be earning more of that 8 mill he's making this year.
Watching Levi at Penn State you saw a few things. He was a definite road grader in the run game. He was a hard worker and a solid individual. He also was average in pass protection. He was a left tackle. Like Rolle and (to a lesser extent) Pace, he is being asked to play to his weaknesses rather than his strengths. Being switched form the left to the right is also a much bigger deal than Grimm led on to IMO. I understand that he switched sides as a pro, but Russ was also a HOFer and a guard. There is just too much muscle memory involved. That is like asking guys who have been golfing or swinging a baseball ball strictly right-handed for 15 years to suddenly switch and go at it lefty. There are going to be a super-ambidextrous few that can do it immediately, but most are going to struggle for a while or never be as good as before.
Russ Grimm came here thinking they were going to make a Pittsburgh West, but is now being asked to help duplicate The Greatest Show on Turf--in other words, he's in O-Line Coach HELL. Here is a guy who played on a bullying O-line for his entire career. He was exceptional at run blocking and that leads one to believe that he is probably better suited to teach that aspect of the position. So here we have a run-block oriented line coach teaching his guys to pass protect for 3/4 of the game. On top of this, he is literally only given 5 guys to block with 90% of the time.
The first hole in the road was losing Leonard Davis. My opinion is that it had next to nothing to do with his on-field play. He said he didn't want to be here and had shown himself to be inconsistent with his commitment and motor. I personally, dont blame LD entirely for this, as the organization was still a joke and the way the players were still being treated in comparison with players from other clubs when he got here was sad. Either which way, Whiz didn't want to set a president by paying an underachiever who publicly displayed affection for other teams(especially douchebags like Dallas
).
When Whiz took this team over he, like most all of us, assumed Leinart would be our starter. Whiz had good intentions for Matty and tried to give him what every young QB needs to be successful, a strong running game.So here we were with no starting quality OTs on the team, two of the top 10 receivers in the league, an aging, but future HOF running back who gained over 1,000 yards the year before behind a putrid line and a young and fragile franchise QB. Logic tells you that we were going to take the best OTs available with our first 2 picks. Looking back, I should have really known there was no real chance we'd take AP. The truth is that nobody thought he would be this good or the guy would have went #1, whether the Raiders took him or traded the pick. Either which way, we should have known we were stuck with Levi.
I believe the coaching staff knew he had slow feet and thought they could counteract that by switching him to the right side and hiding him from the premium pass rushers. Because Leinart is a southpaw, they were able to say that a great RT was necessary. In reality, I believe it was an excuse to keep the media from immediately hounding them about being the first team in the history of the NFL draft to select a RT with a top 10 pick.
In the end, after this year when Warner retires and Matt takes over things will drastically change. Asking a lineman with Brown's skill-set to pass protect all day would be like having Dockett primarily play NT in our 3-4. This team is going to be so different when we're ramming the ball down your throats with Beanie and Hightower setting up the play-action bomb to Fitz.
I am excited about the future, I just wish it wasn't getting in the way of the present.
